'Friendly fire'; US missile goes astray in Ukraine, injures civilians
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US-made missiles are backfiring, literally.
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AGM-88 air to surface missiles aboard the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, off the coast of Virginia in October (AP)
Relying on locals and debris found at the scene, it was announced that an American-made missile the Ukrainian forces fired left three civilians injured in eastern Ukraine.
Locals revealed that on September 26 at around 6 am, an AGM-88B High-Speed Anti-Radiation Missile, which is fired from a fighter jet and targets ground targets like radar and air-defense systems, was used in an attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk.
During the war, Ukraine relies on air defense systems, some of which have just been delivered by Western allies.
On one occasion this month, officials from the US and Poland asserted that a Russian-made missile that crossed Poland's western border and killed two people was probably an air defense munition fired by Ukraine in response to an alleged Russian aerial assault.
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The frontlines of the conflict in Ukraine have become marked by an almost constant barrage of munitions, and it is frequently impossible to identify the brand and origin of these weapons. Thousands of bullets, artillery shells, and missiles have been fired, as arms continue to pour into the country.
The tens of billions of dollars in military aid from the United States that are sent to Ukraine can end up here, hinting at where all the military aid can sometimes land, according to New York Times reporters who were able to gather and identify distinct metal fragments left behind at the scene of an earlier strike in eastern Ukraine in September.
“Three people got wounded, they say. No dead. It hit the apartment where no one lives, and in the next one, people got hurt,” said Olga Vasylivna, a resident who lived adjacent to where the missile hit. Her account was borne out by witnesses.
“We had hits in this neighborhood before. Now we are afraid of every tiny rustle.”
A spokeswoman for Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense did not respond to questions about the missile strike.
With the Pentagon dipped into aging stocks of equipment to supply Kiev, sometimes leaving Ukrainian forces troops with worn-down matériel, it is almost certain that the AGM-88B that struck the apartment in Kramatorsk came from old surplus stocks, as it has been replaced by a newer model in service with American forces, a US official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, revealed.
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